If side dishes are your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal, this recipe for Turkey Thigh Confit (which is the best turkey you will ever eat) will change your mind.
Get the recipe for Turkey Thigh Confit with Citrus Mustard Sauce:
Get the recipe for Garlic Confit:
Buy the Nacho sweatshirt:
But the Chèvre sweatshirt:
Follow Dan on Instagram:
Follow Dan on Twitter:
Follow Dan on Facebook:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
0:00-0:30 – All the Mean Things People Say About Turkey
0:30-1:14 – What is Confit?
1:14-3:18 – Heat Capacity Explained
3:18- 4:44 – Cooking in Water vs. Cooking in Fat
4:44-5:16 – Why You Should Make Turkey Confit
5:16-6:58 – How to Make Turkey Confit
6:58-7:59 – Credits and New Merch!
source
43 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
love that sodium citrate shirt!!! it's a miracle hero ingredient in my kitchen. I make more than just queso with it, but of course that's where I started. it's great for almost any cheese sauce, though.
Okay Dan, I tried this. I guess it tasted fine, but the hassle and additional cost is a drag. Takes up a lot of frig space, which is a no-no for Thanksgiving prep.
Great presentation Dan! Natural and engaging. Thank you for the hard work.
I've learned something, thanks!
Oh I wish this was my husband. The passion !
I would love to be your neighbor 😅
Pretty engineer-y thermodynamic explanation!
So water, having more energy, cooks the food faster? He doesn’t say which —water or oil— is faster and what he means by “all that energy”! Frustrating!!
If the effectiveness of this method is due to slow transfer of heat (from the oil), wouldn't we get the same results from sous vide at a lower temperature? Also, Dan attributes loss of flavor in typical cooking methods to flavor molecules dissolving in the surrounding water. At any cooking temperature the meat will emit juices/steam, altho less at lower temps naturally. Wouldn't most loss of flavor be due to this? How would we test this?
This sounds awesome! Gonna give it a go…but one question: every turkey I buy these days is already in a brine solution in the bag. In that case, should I do the long seasoning step in your recipe, or will that result in way-too-salty meat?? Thanks for any tips!
i'm convinced and inspired. I was going to sous vide my turkey this year but i'm glad i found your video. Confited will give me a similar outcome without involving plastic bags or circulators.
Can you season the fat you're using for confit or is that useless ? Thanks anyway
Heat capacity is not particularly relevant for slow cooking via a liquid immersion such as confit, sous vide, or braising. Instead, the convective heat transfer coefficient (h) of the liquid is more important! If you look at the equation for heat transfer, heat capacity is nowhere to be seen. Heat rate=h*(T_liquid-T_meat)*Area
To reduce the amount of oil used, I’m going to try a turkey breast sous vide but add enough oil to the bag to surround the meat. I just wonder if there’s any point thought, because sous vide usually provides me with a moist tender breast anyway.
I love your videos so much! You have a great screen presence with a delightful cadence in your speech and candor to boot. Please however stop telling people to use vegetable oil as a replacement for animal fats! If you could use your wonderful brain and do a little research of the scientific consequences that have been delt as a result of polyunsaturated vegetable fats flooding the market since the 40s&50s, it's the number one hidden cause for a lot of issues in health both in the US (since Crisco came out) and the rest of the world.
I have always loved deep fried turkey. Only issue with these methods is the lack of stuffing. However, I might try to confit a whole turkey in the deep fryer this year.
Any chance you could share a curing recipe for this confit that isn't behind a paywall? I'd love to try it but I don't want to end up subscribing to a cooking site that I'll most likely not otherwise use.
You are entertaining and informative as Alton Brown (That's a compliment) in your own way. I love the science behind cooking. great job!
At 2:55 I thought I was watching an episode of Big Bang Theory……
TOO GREASY.
PLUS DROP THE HUMOR.
YOU'RE NOT GOOD AT IT.
Confit, I couldn't remember what this was called but I was planning on doing this maybe next Thanksgiving. Now I don't have to go it alone. Thanks Dan!
Not eating turkey Dan>..Tried this recipe. 4/6 days of brining made bird super dry not to mention so salty!!! Bummed i wasted $ on expensive bird. At least my sides turned out. Not sure what went wrong. Looked up other recipes and they say to brine at the most 2 days. Self disclosure .. I am a vegetarian but my friends eat the meat. So I actually did not taste it. But it looked dry and friends couldn’t eat it.. So just caution to others… Brine for less time!!
He's gorgeous!
The printed recipe says to put the dutch over uncovered in the oven, but the demonstration in the video has it covered. Which is the correct method?
I wonder if you could do this for an entire turkey spatchcocked (albeit a small one)…
Turkey is the red headed step child to the chicken. I also feel like the turkey industrial complex is responsible for this whole 'turkey' deal for thanksgiving, when chicken is far superior to it in every way. We need to bring more awareness to the turkey industrial complex and their manipulation of Americans.
Love your videos, Dan!
Where does one get duck fat
Need rankings of duck fat alternatives because it can be hard to get if not planning ahead.
Turkey is an inexpensive protein. I'm curious how the cost per serving compares between this and other cooking methods.
I made this turkey! But I did not make it for Thanksgiving I did it with a turkey breast and used that breast to make lunchmeat for my daughter (she is very picky) she loved it! This makes fantastic lunchmeat if your life skills are good enough to cut the meat thinly. Thanks Dan
Is there a way to make confit turkey boneless breast?
definitely trying it this year! seems perfect for a small number of people, without worrying as much about quantity and will be super easy for leftovers!
Nice sodium citrate shirt! (or whatever that particular article of clothing is called)
So deep frying a turkey?
Dan is the G.O.A.T.
If you say brine get F
I’d take a tubby with you, lol
Where do you get just Turkey thighs (other than buying multiple turkeys and throwing the rest out, lol)? Can this technique be used on the rest (breast, wings, legs)?
When he put the dutch oven in the oven he says at 200 degrees. Is that farenheit or celsius? I feel 200 is a bit too low if it's farenheit but too high if it's celisus …
Can a confit work on the stove top or does the heat all being on the bottom not work? Also every confit recipe I see is for dark meat. Is it good for the breasts as well? I'd like to butcher the turkey and then throw the whole thing in a pot on low submerged in fat. Would that work?
Boring
Hmmm, I wonder. Is this like putting your hand on a piece of steel vs a piece of wood when it's really cold outside? Does the principle you talk about hold true in this case? I have no clue. My guess is that the piece of cold steel will transfer its cold to your hand quicker than the piece of wood. Even though they are the same temperature, the steel will feel much colder to your hand than the wood. Could this be what's happening with the 140degree water vs the 140degree oil? Does the water transfer the heat to your finger a lot faster than the oil? There's gotta be someone smart enough to figure this out. I should have paid more attention in science class.